call on the carpet

Idioms  

1. Summon for a scolding or rebuke, as in Suspecting a leak to the press, the governor called his press secretary on the carpet. This term began as on the carpet, which in the early 1700s referred to a cloth (carpet) covering a conference table and therefore came to mean “under consideration or discussion.” In 19th-century America, however, carpet meant “floor covering,” and the expression, first recorded in 1902, alluded to being called before or reprimanded by a person rich or powerful enough to have a carpet.

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Example Sentences

It was a straight call on the carpet.

From On With Torchy by Lincoln, Foster

Related Words

• advise
• berate
• censure
• chide
• enjoin
• exhort
• rebuke
• reprimand
• scold
• upbraid
• warn